President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko has signed the law on ratification of the financial agreement (Ukraine's Higher Education Project) between Ukraine and the European Investment Bank (EIB) on granting a loan of EUR120 million to Kyiv to improve energy efficiency of university buildings.

According to the presidential press service, the financial agreement was signed on December 19, 2016 with the aim of attracting up to EUR120 million of EIB loans under state guarantees. The funds will be used to implement energy efficiency measures at university buildings and other investments related to the educational process.

The Ukraine's Higher Education project will be implemented on co-financing terms with attracting funds from other sources. Thus, in addition to the funds issued by the EIB, some EUR10 million will be provided from the Eastern Europe Energy Efficiency and Environment Partnership ( E5P). The board of directors of the Nordic Environment Finance Corporation (NEFCO) also decided to issue a loan of EUR30 million, which will be used to implement this project.

The project envisages two stages of implementation and aims at improving the learning environment as a whole. It foresees investments in energy efficiency at seven universities in Ukraine.